At least 39 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in Jiaohe, a
city in northeast China's Jilin
Province, made it to safety on Monday, according to local
rescue workers.
A total of 69 workers were in the tunnel of the Tengda Coal Mine
when the flooding occurred at around 7:00 AM Sunday.
Fortunately, the ventilation remained normal underground, said
Yuan Yuqing, deputy director of the Jilin Provincial Coal
Administration.
Sources with the local rescue center confirmed that the water
came from the Ji'an Coal Mine, located several hundred meters from
the Tengda mine. The latter is a licensed township coal production
business.
Although the investigation into the cause of the accident is
still under way, local sources said that the flood could have been
triggered by rainfall set off by cloud seeding and snowmelt from
the Songhua River.
The accident was just one of seven occurring in workplaces
across the nation in the past few days.
Eight lives were lost on Saturday when a fire spread through the
Fushun Coal Mine in Yuzhou, central China's Henan
Province, while four people remain missing. Another 67 miners
managed to escape when a machine caught fire, according to a local
official.
The mine, a township enterprise, was operating illegally and
police are questioning its owner.
Provincial Vice Governor Shi Jichun went to the site to oversee
rescue operations.
Twelve people have now been confirmed dead in Thursday's
explosion of a chemical plant in Qijiang County, southwest China's
Chongqing
Municipality.
Ten people were injured and seven remain missing, according to
county official Pan Dexiang.
The blast occurred on Thursday evening when lightning struck an
emulsification workshop at the Dongxi Chemical Plant. It destroyed
a three-story factory building and left a two-meter-deep
crater.
Explosive materials are mixed with the debris, creating the
possibility of another blast as rescue teams search for those still
missing. Experts are on the scene working with the cleanup teams to
minimize the risk.
Ten tons of hazardous chemicals have been removed from the
factory's warehouse, but one source said that another batch of
explosives is still buried under the rubble.
Dongxi Plant has earmarked 2.5 million yuan (US$300,000) to
cover medical costs of the injured workers and to compensate the
victims' families. A local insurance company has paid 500,000 yuan
(US$60,000) in advance payments.
Minimum compensation of 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) is to be paid
to each of the victims.
Three boat accidents took place off China's east coast on
Saturday, leaving one dead and 14 missing, local marine search and
rescue centers announced on Sunday.
A fishing boat sank in strong winds near Taizhou, a city in east
China's Zhejiang
Province, at 4:56 AM. Three of the six sailors were rescued but
three others are still missing.
An hour later, a fishing boat collided with a large ship 155
nautical miles east of Wenzhou, also in Zhejiang. Only one of the
nine people aboard the fishing boat was rescued, another died and
the remaining seven are still missing. No one on the larger vessel
was injured.
The third accident took place near Wenling, Zhejiang Province,
at about 3:00 PM, when a boat registered in Fujian Province sank.
Two were rescued and the other four are missing.
Rescue efforts are still under way at the three accident sites
and the causes are under investigation.
Two more bodies have been found buried in the landslide that
occurred on Thursday at a quarry near Hohhot, the capital of north
China's Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, said local rescuers Sunday. Three
other workers were previously confirmed dead.
All five were from Ulanqab, a city near the quarry. A source
said earlier that production had been stopped at the quarry for
some time, but that the workers were staying to guard equipment
left at the site.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2005)